Why I Picked USC and Viterbi

It’s crazy for me to think that a little more than two years ago, I had no idea where I was going to college. I didn’t know where I was going to spend the next four years of my life and I wasn’t even sure about my major. But I knew what I wanted out of college and what was important to me. Once I knew what my options were, the choice was actually really easy.

I knew when I started applying that I wanted a large school, preferably on the west coast (not in my home state of Washington, however). I knew I not only wanted a school that would challenge me but I wanted a collaborative engineering school (which is harder to find that it sounds). I also wanted football. I wanted a big football program in a big conference where people actually went to games.

Getting tossed in the Coliseum after a USC touchdown!

I had the opportunity to come to Explore USC after I got my acceptance and more than anything it helped me see what USC was like. I knew objectively that USC was a good school and that they had a good football program and that I liked LA, etc. I knew all that. But I didn’t know that I wanted to go to USC until I came to Explore and heard the band play for the first time.

Doheny Library on campus

It sounds really, really stupid that I knew this is where I wanted to go after I heard the band play. But it’s the truth and it’s because there are lots of great universities out there. There are lots of school with football in big cities that checked things off of my list of what I wanted in my college experience. But it was really the environment and culture of USC that won me over (the band was just one aspect of that). I liked the collaborative environment of Viterbi, knowing that it would be easy to form a study group and that we were encouraged to work together and the resources that Viterbi offered for tutoring, start-ups, all their organizations, and free printing at the Center of Engineering Diversity. I liked the work hard play hard culture that USC offers in general. As a part of Explore I got to talk to current students and hear about what they were doing both in class and out and everyone I talked to was doing so many different things and everyone was doing something different. As someone who likes to keep busy I knew that this was the perfect environment for me.

Me on top of Traveler, our mascot!

I wanted to come to a school where I knew that not only would I get a great education and be able to network and all the “real world” related things, but I wanted to go to a school where I knew I would have fun and where I could grow as a person. USC has offered me so much and I’ve loved every minute here. It had everything I was looking for and things I didn’t know I wanted. It was coming to campus, though, that showed me that this was the place I truly wanted to be.